Thank you this is most helpul.
Brian
--- Rev Je Kan Adler-Collins <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> “Without such an understanding I doubt if many
> viewers of the video-clip would understand your
> values and commitment
> from just watching
> the video. But I may be mistaken and my doubt could
> be inappropriate.”
>
> Your response was not unexpected and in a way I am
> glad that you did
> respond as you have. It leads me to the issues that
> I am worried about
> concerning how we see and what we see. When I
> worked in my healing
> research with indigenous healers of different
> countries ( South
> America, Mexico, the first nation peoples, ) I did
> not know the history
> or the language other than what my culture had fed
> me. I had no terms
> of reference and no pre conceived ideas about what I
> would or should
> see/feel spiritually. The shaman, healers, priest
> and medicine men do
> not give formal teachings as they expect your spirit
> to teach you. In
> this way your questions, actions and insights, give
> a good indication
> to the teacher of you understandings and awareness.
> It is the same in
> Japan. In traditional Buddhist teachings very little
> formal teaching is
> given as it is for the individual to find there way
> towards,
> enlightenment. Each different sect of Buddhism has
> its own philosophy
> and thinking from which it builds it traditions and
> rituals. Over time
> these become formalized and the meanings of the
> original thinking that
> gave rise to the rituals are lost in the dogmatic
> teaching of the
> knowledge in the box.
>
> My concern with western forms of understand is the
> idea of immediacy
> and one where there is a knowledge giver and a
> knowledge receiver and
> that knowledge has to be within a set of pre set
> conditions and the
> context has to be known. This I feel is the main and
> crucial difference
> between the analytical, lets understand the box ,
> what the box is made
> of, how to use the box and what is in the box
> thinking and that of;
> well, lets see the space that the box has created
> in space and see
> what the box brings to both its internal and
> external space.
>
> I deliberately did not include a textual narrative
> as the idea was to
> give and insight to practice. I had hoped that such
> questions and
> observations would be evolve of the nature: what do
> I feel as I look?
> what do I hear as I listen? I wanted the visuals to
> be virgin as it
> were and then the questions that arise form
> engagement by inclusion
> would be the meeting ground to understand .For me I
> believe that you
> have set out the conditions you need in order to
> understand.
>
> I am different to you, with my understandings, I
> need no words as I
> give space to the space. In the ideas of Alan’s
> excluded middle I am
> comfortable with having no terms of reference other
> than thinkable and
> unthinkable. Brian talks of esoteric words and
> thinking and how to
> hold on to them. If you preset your viewing by
> context in the claim
> that it is the only way to understand Then from the
> very beginning you
> are not allowing your self to engage in a form of
> inclusional
> communication offered. If I use my understandings of
> my senses, with
> the idea that the only truth that has any relevance
> is that; I know
> there is much I do not know, I can expand the
> boundaries of my
> ignorance because they are fluid in their dynamics
> of conscious open
> enquiry. Often I have to unlearn how I have been
> taught to see and the
> blindness of expectations is shown for what it is,
> that of cultural
> conditioning.
>
> I took a risk in offering insights to my practice as
> a mountain
> Buddhist monk, knowing that many would have no terms
> of reference to
> understand its context. I had hoped that some would
> be able to identify
> the values even if they did not know the context. I
> am intrigued to
> know if love and compassion can communicate non
> textually across
> cultures. It seems so far that I have failed in that
> endeavor. smile.
> I hoped that it would stimulate some questions that
> would indicate a
> willingness to explore rather than set conditions
> under which the
> communication can take place. What interests me as I
> know through our
> friendship that we have on occasions been in
> different worlds, is that
> your ground breaking work will lead you to having to
> become more
> comfortable with having less control over your
> boundaries of learning
> within a space and allow the space to teach you by
> reflecting back to
> you.
>
> The most positive part of your response was that
> related to the
> technology, which is used to create the box in
> cyberspace. Rather than
> any engagement with what you felt about what you saw
> or did not see.
> Interesting stuff other peoples’ worlds.. smile. If
> I was the sensitive
> type of individual the silence to the posting could
> stop me trying
> again as the time and effort to create, edit, post
> the clip is
> considerable and the responses negligible. However I
> believe that it is
> part of my learning to understand myself through the
> reflections of
> others that continues and will continue to fuel my
> passion to
> communicate. What our dialogue is showing is the
> difficulty and
> complexity of forms and conditions of knowing. That
> is an exciting
> challenge..
>
> Love and respect, grasshopper
> Je Kan
>
> Rev Je Kan Adler-Collins
> Associate Professor of Nursing
> Fukuoka Prefectural University Faculty of Nursing
> Tagawa City
> Fukuoka Prefecture
> Japan
>
Brian E. Wakeman
Education adviser
Dunstable
Beds
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